David Saker named new England bowling coach

Must admit I'd never heard of him until I read the article, but then the same was true of Troy Cooley when he took over and he went ok. Maybe one or two of our Victorian correspondents could bring us up to speed? Good bloke? Well regarded?

Throughout his tenure, Victoria were pretty damn good with getting reverse swing. Bloke knows a Kookaburra ball as well as anyone, and wouldn't be surprised to see a bit more movement for the English bowlers than what is generally achieved by visiting sides this coming Ashes.

Bloody competitive bloke, got suspended when coaching the Victorian 2nd XI whilst sub-fielding, which saw him demoted from his job as assistant coach to bowling coach.

What he has managed to do is fast-track the development of a number of players who wouldn't appear to be ready when they first hit the scene; James Pattison, Clint McKay. He's also worked hard with players plucked from district cricket for a game or two under trying circumstances and gotten them up to FC standard quicker than expected (Darren Pattison).

Not heard of him, but if someone said we're getting a domestic bowling coach from somewhere in the world, Victoria would be right at the top of my list. So from that point of view looks like a really good pick.

I'll leave the detailed analysis to people who know more than me but I'd just point out that the depth and quality of the Victorian pace bowling stocks has been obscenely good in the last few years. He must have had a fair hand in that.

There were a couple of incidents in his time. One was a confrontation with a third umpire, which was the last straw. And I believe that there may have been some unsubstantiated ball tampering accusations made when he was sub-fielding, along with a few other blokes.

Good article by Brendan McArdle, ex Victorian cricketer, on the appointment in The Age today. Doesn't have an internet link, unfortunately. It mentions some of what Saker planned on including in his presentation to the ECB:

''Bowlers are there to get wickets and I don't care if they look good,'' he said.

''As long as they're getting wickets and their process of getting wickets is all right, I'm happy. What goes into their heads is most important in my opinion, not their technical stuff. Obviously you've got to be across the technical stuff … but my major strength is trying to get 20 wickets in a game.''